Magic Roast Chicken

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Rinse the chicken and pat dry, then place it in your roasting pan.

Roughly chop the vegetables (cut onion into about 6 pieces, cut carrot and celery into about 8). Quarter the lemons, leaving peel on. Do not chop garlic, but leave cloves whole.

Rub the chicken with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Begin to stuff cavity with vegetables and lemons, alternating the different ingredients so you don’t get strong pockets of one flavor or another. I usually go: onion, carrot, celery, lemon, garlic, onion, carrot, celery… Fill the cavity about 90% full – you don’t want to pack the aromatics in so tightly that they don’t have room to move around a bit. If you have leftover vegetables, you can roast them on the bottom of the pan with the chicken.

Roast for 20-25 minutes at 400F, or until the skin just begins to darken. Turn heat down to 325F and roast another hour to 90 minutes, depending on the size of your bird.

Let the chicken rest for 5-10 minutes before carving. While resting, it will let off quite a bit of juice, which you can return to the pan for extra gravy!